Wounds
by KSdees
Summary: Regretting their behaviours toward Izaya, everyone decided to hold an apologising party for him at Shinra's. At first they fear he wouldn't come, but finally, the doorbell rang. However, things aren't going to be that easy. A simple apology just isn't enough for wounds left festering for years. Friendship/Drama (Shinra/Izaya)
1. Chapter 1

The bell in the doorway rings, to everyone's relief, before Shinra rushes over to welcome his friend. Izaya greet him with a smile.

"Ara. To think you invited everyone, even me. This must be a big celebration~" Izaya said after he scanned the room and its occupants, grinning.

There's Shinra, and, obviously, Celty, Kururi, Mairu, Kadota and his gang, his secretary Namie, Anri-chan, Mikado-kun, some others and even Masaomi and Shizuo came.

"Now then, can you tell me what is this all about? Not that I don't have something in mind, though." The informant continued, smile never faltering.

[A-Actually we were really sorry to hurt you like that. S-So we thought we'd throw you a party. J-Just like last time with the hot pot.] Celty typed rapidly on her PDA, before pausing and turning into the kitchen to fetch something. She return with a huge cake.

[H-Here, we even make you cake! ] She said, the PDA in her free hand.

"Y-Yes! Kururi-chan and Mairu-chan and everyone else tries really hard!" Sonohara-san spoke up, to Izaya's surprise. He knows she was never the one to draws attention to herself.

"We're sorry, Izanii... We never thought you were so lonely."

"…Sorry." Mairu whispered in her quiet manner.

"Heh, who would think even the two of you would even apologise! Don't you find that a bit too marvellous, ne, Shizu-chan?" He chirped, turning to Shizuo, revealing hints of the effort being put in to keep his smile. Surely, Shizuo won't do the same. At least he won't give him that empty apology now, will he?

"Actually, Flea. I'm sort of sorry as well… I shouldn't try to kill you so much."

"We really mean it, Orihara-kun."

Izaya turned an give a wide, fake smile to the speaker. It's Shinra.

"Heh… , come to think about it, apologies are like elixir, aren't they?" The informant mused to no one in particular, lowering his head so his bangs cover his face where his smile is contorting to a pained expression. It was Shizuo who took it upon himself to respond.

"Uh. I guess so."

Izaya's expression quickly twisted back into a smile as he walk to Celty, who is still holding the cake.

"Ne… Shinra." The said man tense in anticipation, even though he has a vague idea what Izaya will be doing next. "What is it, Orihara-kun?" He tried and failed to keep his smiling expression.

"You know what will happen to a wound left uncared for... right?" Izaya said, the last part punctured by the crashing sound of the cake hitting the floor when he suddenly plunged his switch-blade into the cake and the stunned Celty dropped it.

There was no reply as the whole room gape in shock. Izaya continues in a smooth tone, yet his face remained hidden.

"Well, I'll tell you, since you are my precious humans after all... At first it was just a small cut. Bleeding, but posing no permanent harm..." Izaya started making his way to the fallen cake, strolling as gracefully as ever.

"Then, you see, someone just happened to step on it." He stepped on the fallen cake, before continuing.

"The wound will hurt worse. Not that anyone care. But keep trampling on it..." He repeatly stomps on the cake and messes it with his foot. Izaya still keeps the smile on his face, but it now seem sarcastic and dangerous.

"and the bacteria goes in and it gets infected..." The cake is now a mass of cream and bread on the floor, mixed with dirt from Izaya's boot. Sonohara and the twin sisters covered their mouths, on the verge of crying.

"And even then, no one cared!" Izaya was trembling and struggling to keep his smile now. He lowered his head and said in a low voice. "Then, before you know it, the wound will fester and rot…"

"Oi, stop it already— "

"And then… " Izaya reached into his hidden pocket. Shizuo, who is reaching to grab Izaya to prevent him from causing more mess, was cut short.

"...And then... And _then_ you all just splashed elixir over it!"

There was a sound of glass shattering. It was small bottle Izaya fished from his jacket. Izaya was crying. That prideful Orihara Izaya was crying. But the liquid pouring from the broken glass in Izaya's hand steal the attention of the people from his tears.

Clear liquid no different than an elixir drips onto the mess on the floor. A pungent smell reach everyone's nose, before the liquid seeps onto the tiled floor and it started to melt, smoke rising.

Acid.

Then, breathing heavily, with tears streaming down his face and blood dripping from his hand, Izaya started to laugh, uncontrollably.

 _"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHA..."_

"My stupid humans! How naive you are to expect that to work!" He sputtered out between fits of laughter. A set of half amused, half sobbing sentences.

"Does it make anything better? _No!_ No, it doesn't! It's even worse!"

Izaya took a deep breath and the laughter subsided. He was still crying, and still shaking. A slim figure standing in the middle of a silent room, a jumble of cake at his feet.

"But who cares anyway? No one ever did, and I'm not obligated to do that myself anymore. Maybe I should just cut the wound out if it hurts this much... It must have rotted beyond cure anyway." He uttered in a bitter voice, shoving his way pass Shinra to the door. Everyone else has lost their speech a long while ago, so they just stared at the raven.

"Well then, everybody, I hope to never meet any of you again~" He turned back and put on a last fake smile that stretch across his entire face, before he broke down completely and stormed off, leaving the door ajar and the spectators gaping some more.


	2. Chapter 2

Izaya was curling on his bed in his apartment. He very rarely has a breakdown like this, and usually he would drag himself up and shut out all the matters easily. But this time... This time his tears just won't stop flowing.

Izaya wiped his face with a bloodied hand, telling himself to stop, to shut it all out and deal with later. His hand hurts, his head hurts and even his skin hurts from the acid when he wiped his tears.

And for the first time in, who knows how long, Izaya honestly wish someone would be here with him.

Knock. Knock.

" Izaya, I'm coming in."

It's not a question or a request for permission, just a statement.

 _'I'm coming in.'_

The words were slow to register in Izaya's mind, but when it did, Izaya sprang up from the bed, stumbling to the door. He'd forgotten to lock it when he came in. He hoped he would be able to prevent the visitor from seeing his pitiful state, but there's no such luck.

Shinra came in, his tool box with him. To Izaya's surprise, and relief, no one else came with him

"Hi Shinra. What're you doing here? I thought I said I didn't want to meet any of you again." He tried to act normal, like he is actually fine with it, but his voice frayed at the end. At least his tears stopped. Izaya put on an empty smirk, for good measure.

"Good evening, Orihara-kun." Shinra said in his usual carefree tone, smiling like nothing happened. This irked Izaya. How could he still smiling, when he is here breaking down and crying. He should at least have conscience enough to regret or feel guilty!

"Let's have a talk. Mind if I use the bathroom?" Shinra asked. Izaya is trying hard to restrain his anger now. He won't be unreasonable, because he has been childish enough for one day.

"Of course, but tell me, what do you come here for?"

"Hm?"

Shinra has intruded his bathroom even before Izaya could reply him.

"I said," Izaya asked again in a louder voice, "What do you come here for?"

Shinra walks out with a clean towel in hand, his aid kit on the sink in the bathroom.

"To try to fix things, of course." Shinra was smiling when he said it. Izaya felt his eyes burning again, tears threatening to leak out. But this time in anger, not sadness or loneliness. He felt like he was being trampled on, like his feelings mean nothing. Like anyone can break it and patch it up anytime.

It hurts far worse when Shinra, of all people, is the one saying it.

Moments passed with no other sound than the water running and equipments being prepared, and surprisingly, Izaya hadn't considered running away or locking himself in the bedroom upstairs. Instead he just went to the couch and let himself fall onto it limply.

After a few minutes Shinra came and laid a thick white cloth over the black leather. Probably to prevent making any mess with the blood.

And Izaya now expects further silence, like every time Shinra has been working on him.

Only it was he who speak first.

"As a doctor," Shinra said slowly, "I admit I made a mistake, ignoring a wound and left it to fester for so long... I'm sorry."

Izaya's eyes snapped open. Shinra never said that except to Celty. Or as far as Izaya has ever heard. And when he looked at the doctor, he found their eyes meeting for the first time today.

Shinra was serious.

"But, you know, also as a doctor, I must salvage any thing salvageable. Your wound has not fester beyond repair yet,"

He averted his eyes back to the task at hand, but Izaya kept his gaze fixed on the doctor, looking for any sign of pretending.

He couldn't even trust his best friend.

Izaya smiled ironically at that.

"Let's see," Shinra continued on. "To take care of injuries like this, you must clean it first."

He proceed to clean Izaya's bleeding hand, and it stings. Izaya gritted his teeth against the pain, but stayed still and endured the process until he finished.

Then, very, very surprisingly, Shinra took out a washed napkin and wipe away Izaya's tears, gently, keeping eye contact.

Izaya's breath hitched painfully, and new tears begin to come. He shut his eyes and bit it back.

"I'm sorry, Izaya, I truly am. I'm not pouring elixir now, just water. Let it wash what's done away. The past doesn't need to interfere with our present, okay?"

Taking a deep breath, without opening his eyes, he nodded.

And Shinra must have smiled.

"Next, when the wound is cleaned, you should put medication on it to prevent future infection, like this,"

He deftly wiped the wound over with meds, then proceed to entwine their pinky fingers.

"What I did, ignoring you and not ever inviting you to any gathering, was wrong of me. I always know you care, but I hadn't been good enough to respond in kind. It wouldn't happen again, I promise."

His words were flowery, but completely sincere as far as Izaya's sharp eyes could see.

"I... I —"

"Hush, just let me finish this, don't say anything, okay?"

He smiled and went back to work.

"And lastly, you should wrap it tight, like this, so as to allow it to heal."

He wind a bandage around his injured hand very neatly, then set aside his tools, moved from his kneeling position up onto the sofa beside Izaya, then hugged him.

Izaya had once thought he never knew an embrace. And it was true until now. Shinra was so warm. So safe.

Slowly, tentatively, he put his own arms around the man and cry into his shoulders.

Finally, he truly has a friend.

Finally, the wound in his heart has been healed.


End file.
